Blasters, guns, lasers question

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jdwhitelaw

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I'm wondering what the consensus is on what to call pistols and rifles in a sci-fi universe.

Is blaster the standard term. I seem to have this stigma attached to it whereby I assume it is primarily a term reserved for the Star Wars franchises.

That and I can't help but feel laser is a bit tame and somewhat unrealistic compared to the rest of the universe I've created.

Thoughts, experiences more than welcome.
 

dpaterso

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"blasters" go 'way back to Golden Age Sci-Fi. But varying this, "Doc" Smith's Triplanetary Patrol agents and in later novels his Lensmen called their weapons by name, first Lewistons, then the deadlier DeLameters whose beams whiffed zwilniks out of existence in a pyrotechnic flash. (Good gravy, I just noticed Triplanetary is on Project Gutenberg!)

"laser" on its own does seem a little lacking in punch, but if you tag a descriptor onto it like laser-pistol and laser-rifle then it doesn't seem quite so generic, to my mind anyway. Laser-bazooka is probably pushing things a little but then again, why not?

A while back I was using "bolt-guns" as an alternative before I encountered the name in Warhammer 40K fiction, so I had to drop this, dammit.

In earlier stories I had infraguns that fired heat packets... but saw the limited range problems.

Looking at my more recent B-movie Sci-Fi fare, I see I've given up trying to invent names that have probably been used before anyway and gone the "Doc" Smith route, using brand names, and showing the level of damage each weapon can do, so this is associated with the name each time it's mentioned.

Whatever works for you is right!

-Derek
 

RichardGarfinkle

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There isn't really a standard and probably shouldn't be. Ray gun used to be in vogue, but has gone out of style. Blaster has been used.

Laser actually has a technical meaning and should only be used for that.

Wepons of all kinds acquire names from all sorts of sources. A lot of the terms for early guns were based on how they set the powder on fire. Matchlock, wheellock, flintlock etc were all mechanisms for getting powder to go boom when and where you wanted them to.

Rifle refers to the process of putting grooves in the barrel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_firearm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle

These days guns are often called by brand name and what size of ammo they fire (e.g. Glock 9mm).

All of which adds up to the idea that you can name your guns whatever you want and explain their effects by the carnage they cause.
 

Lhipenwhe

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I've heard a few different terms. Shredder and Dracon Beams are the names of the laser weapons in the Animorph series, and I've heard 'laser-pistol' to describe, well, a pistol that shoots lasers. Masers are also used when one wants to be specific, and 'beam weaponry' can be a catch-all term for laser weaponry in general.
 

MJNL

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Well, you probably only want to use laser if you're actually employing photons in your weaponry, since it's an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

So, what you call it might depend largely on what the weapon actually does.

But I've both seen and used 'blaster' before (in a non-Star Wars context). I also think calling it by its make and model would work well.
 

richcapo

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I'd be fine with calling pistols and rifles pistols and rifles in a science fiction story. Just describe what they shoot; no need for a fancy name, I say.
 

Ken S.

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As a reader, if I see the word "Pistol" without any additional information around it's capabilities, I'm going to think bullets and clips (a revolver is a different animal). If you shoot someone with said pistol and it burns a hole in someone, fires energy instead of a solid projectile, or otherwise acts un-pistol like, it'll jar me out of the story for a sec while I figure out what happened. If you say "She pulled out her blaster, and opened up on him..." I'm willing to give you a lot of leeway in terms of effects (with the exception of Ice...not sure why ice would be any different, but there it is). The same thing goes with rifles.
Calling them by name works for me as well. I really dug "Doc" Smith's DeLameters. I would caution against names that might remind me of an actual product. Pretty much any gun with "Smith" in the name is going to make me think "Smith and Wesson" unless you really step away from handguns (a ship mounted railgun for example)
 

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I think I tend to go the brand name route. The guards on the spaceship in one (pretty much trunked) novella used what I called suppressed Matiks.
 

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This reminds me of a story I wrote where I called the gun a slugthrower. Then I decided that it should throw garden slugs instead of metal 'slugs'.

Call your gun whatever you want. You do get bonus points for making the name cool. Examples include the Lazy Gun (Iain Banks), the Soft Weapon (Larry Niven), and the Noisy Cricket from MIB.
 

TheRob1

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How much description does your story need?

I'd probably define the weapon type if it shoots something other than a bullet, but unless you have multiple types of weapons going around then more is probably necessary.

I have two examples from pieces I've written:
I wrote a sci-fi piece where the humans still used projectile weapons, but the aliens they were fighting had developed energy weapons.

My current wip is a fantasy w/ the tech level of the old west, so they have revolvers, repeating rifles and things like that. However, there was a great apocolypse long ago that destroyed an ancient civilization. That civilization was destroyed was very advanced. So, I have had to describe some of the weaponry that was left behind from it. Including a gravity-blast pistol.
 

Scott Seldon

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I personally stick to pistol and rifle (while it originally did refer to the grooves in the barrel, now it seems pretty generic from a long barreled gun). If what it shoots is important, then I describe it. Thanks to Star Wars RPG, I think of a baster as a gun that shoots a plasma slug. Lasers are quite deadly if you have a sufficient power source (and if you have FTL in your story, they probably have the tech to make compact yet powerful laser guns), but if you want to be realistic, you can't see the beam unless it is misty or smokey (but then you can't usually see a bullet either).
 

jdwhitelaw

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I'm liking the idea of a brand name.

I have a corporation in the universe who make ships, fighters, freighters etc and have, on occasion branched them into things like food stuffs and other non technical things.

My next question would be, is it still good form to have an all empowering, venture into almost everything under the sun a la Futurama's Mom Corp?

(The corporation do not feature heavily or are directly involved with any of the plot and are only mentioned by name when describing said ships or products)
 

veschke

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This is very timely for me. :) Beta reader on novel complained about me just calling them "guns" b/c he wasn't sure if they were projectile or not. I haven't been able to come up with anything interesting to use instead. Guess this draft would be a good time.
 

J.W. Alden

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I just posted about "ray guns" and the variations thereof on my blog the other day.

I haven't used any kind of energy weapons in my stuff (I just stick to ballistics), but either way I like the idea of calling them by a brand name or nickname. For instance, in one of my stories there are specific weapons brands that make Gauss guns, but regardless of brand name the characters just call them "Gaussers."
 

RichardGarfinkle

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I'm liking the idea of a brand name.

I have a corporation in the universe who make ships, fighters, freighters etc and have, on occasion branched them into things like food stuffs and other non technical things.

My next question would be, is it still good form to have an all empowering, venture into almost everything under the sun a la Futurama's Mom Corp?

(The corporation do not feature heavily or are directly involved with any of the plot and are only mentioned by name when describing said ships or products)


Single versus multiple corporations imply things about your society. If there's a single Mom Corp, you imply a monolithic overarching business that is in everybody's life. If you have multiple corporations, especially if they make competing products you imply a different kind of economy (a little more classically competitive capitalist).

If none of this matters in your book don't worry about it. But it is one of those little clues that can give a sense of your society.
 

jdwhitelaw

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Single versus multiple corporations imply things about your society. If there's a single Mom Corp, you imply a monolithic overarching business that is in everybody's life. If you have multiple corporations, especially if they make competing products you imply a different kind of economy (a little more classically competitive capitalist).

If none of this matters in your book don't worry about it. But it is one of those little clues that can give a sense of your society.

Very interesting, I never really considered the more subtle implications of having such an overwhelming influence on the society of my universe. Despite the fact that it has no direct influence on the plot? Or at least in this piece.
 

Lord Hierarch

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Call them rifles, pistols, cannons, etc...

That terminology is unlikely to change unless you're getting far into the future or something happens that changes how they're used.
 

Spectral Aggressor

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It really depends I guess on how overtly militaristic you want things to feel. If you wanna go for a more over-the-top video game/action movie/cartoonish feel, you can give them names like the hellfire or death-breath or if you want something more realistic you could go with energy projection cannon or direct energy rifle. If they're weapons that ultimately behave in ways comparable to modern day firearms, then I would personally go with the latter, as it adds a general feeling of similarity to the modern day, just within a not so-modern futuristic context.
 

Lighthearter

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I can think of:

-Laser
-Blaster
-Phaser
-Fazer
-Ray Gun
-Energy Gun
-Pulse Gun
-Beam Gun
-Spectrum/Prism Gun(Okay, no more Red Alert references :p)

Plus, like others have mentioned, there's always brands and makes to use. Depends on what you want to do.

I don't personally write Sci/fi, so I guess I'm not the best judge.

-Lighthearter
 

ironmikezero

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You can always resort to the generic "sidearm" for a pistol of any type, and "longarm" or "longgun" for a shoulder mounted/fired weapon.
 

Once!

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There's a trade-off between what your characters would realistically call their guns and what your audience needs to know about them.

Your character doesn't need to know how something works. So in the modern day we use brand names like AK47 or Magnum. James Bond can pick up a Walther PPK and we instantly know that it fires bullets.

But in a scifi world we need to establish the tech, at least just enough for the reader to know what we are dealing with. Is it an accurate weapon or a coarse blaster? Does it vaporise anything it hits or merely gives a flesh wound? Is it high tech or organic? Standard issue or customised? Do we aim it or does it aim itself? How long does it take to recharge? Does the user love this weapon and care for it, or is it just another chunk of junk? Is it heavy or light?

The more we can understand how the weapon works and the user's relationship to it, the more realistic the weapon will be to the reader.

Then the name follows the function. But I'd be very wary of blaster or phaser - they're too close to star wars/ star trek for my liking. But that's purely a personal thing.
 
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